


How They Tease

by inquisitorsmabari



Series: Inquisitor Amelie Trevelyan [4]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Flirting, Fluff, Implied Sexual Content, One Shot, Teasing, Training
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-08 07:21:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15238308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inquisitorsmabari/pseuds/inquisitorsmabari
Summary: Commander Helaine has suggested that Cullen use his expertise in military tactics to help Amelie become a better Knight-Enchanter, which means early morning training sessions for the pair.





	How They Tease

**Author's Note:**

> This was a silly thing that came about from talking to people on Tumblr and yes I am fully aware this has been done a million times but also, it was fun.

“Amelie!” A voice called to her through the darkness, pulling her away from her pleasant dreams and forcing her into the waking world with a gentle tone and a soft nudge on her exposed shoulder. “Time to get up!”

Her eyes opened slowly, but as she saw the bright tendrils of sunlight stream in through the gap in the curtains and onto her face, she slammed her eyes shut again, pulling the covers over her head as she curled up to fall back to sleep. But Cullen was persistent, nudging her with his hand as he spoke in tones which grew ever more forceful as she remained stubbornly out of sight beneath the covers. After a few minutes, her groans were met only with silence, and with an air of triumph, she snuggled into the mattress and closed her eyes, ready to fall into another blissful sleep. 

But then, suddenly, the warmth of the covers was replaced with the cold of the morning air, darkness was replaced with light, and her sleepy groans were replaced by a cry of anger.

“Cullen!” She cried, throwing herself off of the bed as she watched him leer over her in triumph with the covers in his hand. His teasing was bad enough normally, when it was the middle of the day and she wasn’t naked in a freezing cold room, but this was of course, a lot worse. Maker, her patience was really being tested with all this teasing. “What are you doing?”

“Waking you up,” He said, making no effort to hide his satisfaction as he watched her stand completely naked and completely exposed to the icy cold air that had permeated her room on this cold, spring morning. “You remember what we’re doing today?”

“No, what are you-” But then she remembered, and all she could do was elicit another groan, as she sunk back onto the bed. “I remember.”

“Yes,” He said, moving over to grasp her hand in an effort to pull her off of the bed. “We’re doing sword training today. Commander Helaine specifically requested it.”

She groaned again, pulling against his strength with all her might as she fought to stay on the bed. But he was much stronger than her, and much more awake, and soon she was dressed in some light clothes with her Knight-Enchanter hilt in her hand, heading down the stairs and through the keep. Where he was leading her, she had no idea, but what she did know was that it was so early that no one else had even woken yet, save for a few members of staff who swept the floor and dusted off the cobwebs. 

Eventually, they came to the basement level, where not even the staff bothered to venture. The wide chambers were all but silent, save for the thundering of their footsteps which echoed off of the ancient stone walls as they entered the room. She had only come here once, when they had first surveyed Skyhold and she had found the old library with its dusty, cobweb ridden books that she had promised to return to, a promise which has evidently been broken.

“I thought we should go somewhere quiet,” Cullen told her as he paced the room, before coming to a stop in front of her, turning on her with a smile that made him look far too pleased with himself. “Not that anyone will be up at this time.”

“No, but I guess that’s a good thing,” She grumbled, as she made her way along the row of unlit torches, lighting them one by one with fire she summoned in her hand. “I don’t mind embarrassing myself in front of you. But I’d rather not embarrass myself in front of the whole Inquisition.”

“I’m sure you won’t,” Cullen assured her, as he stood across from her with his arms crossed and his lips contorted into a half smile. “Now Helaine assures me that you’ve gone beyond the need for training swords. So, show me what she’s taught you! But try not to slice my head off.”

“Ok,” She nodded, but now she felt nervous, the butterflies in her stomach had decided to do a little dance now that Cullen was watching her intently from the other side of the room. But she persisted, forcing her nausea to ebb as she drew pulled out her Knight-Enchanter Sword and did the steps that Helaine had told her to do. And, as soon as she was done, she withdrew the sword, and turned to look at Cullen in earnest.

“That was fine,” He shrugged, drawing himself closer to her with a saunter that she recognised so well from all those times she had seen him walk amongst their troops, his arms crossed and his stride long as he prowled his territory. “But it’s like Helaine said to me, you need to be more natural.”

“Natural?” She asked him, cocking her head as she watched him draw close. “You mean, less scripted?”

“Yeah, but you’ll do that anyway when you’re actually in the field,” He told her, running his hand over his chin as he stood deep in thought. “Did she tell you to plant your feet like that?”

“Yes,” She answered slowly, feeling an awful lot like she was an apprentice in the Circle again. “Why?”

“It’s an odd choice,” He mused, pacing ever so slightly before rounding back on her with furrowed brows. “It makes sense if you’re going to play defensively, but normally you’d only suggest that to someone who was stronger than they were agile.”

“Well I’m not exactly agile, Cullen,” She rolled her eyes and placed her hands on her hips as she felt herself redden beneath his scrutiny. “And I do have some muscle underneath all this fat, as shocking as that may be.”

“You shouldn’t put yourself down like that,” He told her nonchalantly, his stern expression softening briefly before he quickly reverted hack to Commander mode. “I think you would benefit from doing a smaller arc though, just so you can get out quickly if you need to. I’ll show you.”

She went to ask him what he meant by an 'arc', but as soon as she opened her mouth, she closed it again. He was coming towards her slowly, circling around her carefully until she could feel him stood behind her, so close that she could hear every breath he took. He reached out, his fingers grasping at her hand like tendrils, sending a shockwave through her arm as he moved it for her, pulling it down in front of her so that they moved in perfect synchronisation, like an elaborate, but stilted, dance. Then, in one, rapid, movement, he brought it back up again in a perfect arc, imitating a sword slash in a much more practised and skilled manner than she could ever hope to replicate. But as perfect as it was, he tripped, falling into her as his foot caught on hers. 

He laughed as he clutched onto her, grasping her tighter than ever as he fought to keep her on her feet. “You know you have to move your feet?” He asked her, chuckling as he loosened his grip on her ever so slightly.

“Oh right, sorry,” She said, laughing as she twisted out of his grip and turned to face him. “I’m not very good at this.”

“That’s not true,” He smiled down at her, approaching her carefully with shuffling feet as he reached out to place a hand on her shoulder, his other hand finding itself drawn to the hair that cascaded down behind her left ear in messy, red waves. “You just need more practice, that’s all.”

“But I get the feeling I won’t be getting anymore today,” She sighed as she watched him stroke the soft tendrils of her hair with the rough skin on his thumb, his eyes clouding over as they watched the rhythmic movement of his thumb as it ran over the streaks of red. “You look a bit distracted.”

“I am a bit,” He admitted, his other hand moving to cradle the freckled skin on her cheek, his fingers roaming into the hair at the back of her head as he clutched at her with a gentle grasp. “Don’t worry, I’m not like this with the troops.”

“I should hope not!” She told him, throwing him a teasing smile her tired body giving into its vices as she felt herself relax in his embrace, her arms snaking around his torso so her hands rested on his back. “You shouldn’t give people special treatment though.”

“No, you’re right,” He shrugged, throwing her a slanted smile before leaning down to envelope her lips in his, drawing her into a kiss that felt so soft, so light, so gentle, a teasing kiss that reminded her what more those lips could give her, if she were to let them. But when he pulled away, and she felt a warm pool of desire spread throughout her chest, she knew she would. “I am very unprofessional.” He told her, his words as quiet as a whisper, so quiet that, for the first time since they had come here, nothing echoed off of the stone walls. The words were their own, a sentence that was barely any louder than an intake of breath. And the silence was suddenly no longer deafening, it was intimate, it was a blessing, it was theirs.

She could have stayed in this moment forever, sharing the silence tinged with sweet words, the cold remedied by warm fingers, the distance between them closed by kisses that grew more fervent. But, at the same time, they both knew that a warm bed waited for them upstairs, and although they were desperate not to let go of one another, they knew that they must.

They drew themselves away from each other eventually, and resigned themselves to maintaining contact only through their hands, their fingers intertwined as they turned to leave the damp, cold basement. But, just as they approached the door at the end of the room, Cullen turned to her again, smiling down at her with a cheeky, slanted smile.

“You know, there’s one other thing I forgot to mention,” He told her as he smirked down at her, the scar on his lip looking more jagged than usual in the flickering light of the candles. 

“Yes?” She asked him, although his smile told her that she would regret asking. But she would allow him to tease, as she always did. He spent so much of his life with a scowl on his face that she reveled in the times when he chose to adopt a smile instead.

“You need to stop poking your tongue out when you’re slashing the sword,” He looked down at her with a teasing grin, his eyes twinkling in the torchlight as he waited for her reaction. But she said nothing, all she did was let go of his hand in a feigned huff of displeasure, and instead use her hand to shove his shoulder while he pretended that she had wounded him beyond healing, his moans and cries lasting all the way through the keep and up to her room.

But once they were alone in her room, safely shut away from the rest of his world, his teasing became a lot less verbal, and a lot more physical. He teased with his smile, he teased with his hands, and he teased with his lips, his mouth, his tongue. And she realised that she would never really grow tired of his teasing.

 


End file.
